Information and Perspectives on Bed Bug Prevention, Protection and Safety

Chagas Disease Spreading in U.S., Europe

by Seth Augenstein

Chagas disease, which causes chronic heart disease in approximately a third of cases, has been spreading for decades in the United States. But it’s a silent epidemic: a majority of cases never develop any symptoms at all.

It’s now resulted in enough infections to prompt an official scientific statement from the American Heart Association.

“This statement aims to increase global awareness among physicians who manage patients with Chagas disease outside of traditionally endemic environments,” said Maria Carmo Pereira Nunes, a cardiologist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, and co-chair of the committee that produced the statement.

Kissing bug. Photo: Shutterstock

Between 60 and 70 percent of the infected never show symptoms. But for a third of the unlucky ones, chronic heart disease, failure, strokes and arrhythmias, and heart attacks are all the end product of the parasite, according to the scientific literature.